Remember Me Always
by Dira02
Summary: She left him for a tour, leaving him torn, hurt, and broken. And now, after three months, she returns back home, realizing her fault. The bad news? He has changed. Nathan Scott had changed. And no one could deter him. Not even Haley James. Especially not, Haley James.
1. Chapter One

**~ REMEMBER ME ALWAYS ~**

**Summary : **She left him for a tour, leaving him torn, hurt, and broken. And now, after three months, she returns back home, realizing her fault. The bad news? He has changed.

Nathan Scott had changed. And no one could deter him. Not even Haley James. _Especially_ not, Haley James.

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**Disclaimer : I own nothing that is One Tree Hill related. Sadly.**

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**~CHAPTER ONE~**

He flexed his arms, trying to banish the soreness from his muscles. Stretching upwards, he felt the tension dissipating form his back. He snapped his eyes shut, breathing in the damp sweaty atmosphere of the court. The ball continued to twirl on his finger, soothing him, giving him a comfort he hadn't felt in weeks. Yet, the comfort was drowned in the pain, in the futility of his dreams.

Yes, he dreamt of _her_ yesterday night.

_Again._

His eyes snapped wide open as he flung the ball towards the wall watching it rebound back with a slightly lesser force. He ran towards the ball, picked it up, and after dribbling it a bit, slammed it down the basketball hoop.

_Swoosh!_

He repeated it a few times before the strain started to appear in his back. Standing in the middle of the empty court, he stared down at the ball in his hands intently. His body occupied the atmosphere of the court while his mind traveled a hundred miles away from the place.

_She kissed his lips lightly, like a feather – a cherry-scented feather. Reluctantly, he opened his eyes, pouting a little at her playful face. She narrowed her eyes at him, but quickly shook her head at his childishness. Her giggle floated in the air. _

An unwanted tear escaped his eyes and fell on the orange ball. He wanted to believe that the minute trickle of water down the ball was merely sweat. But to no avail. He knew the truth – and there was no escaping from it.

Ever so gently, her giggle resounded in the court. A soft whisper-like waft at first. A booming reminder of pain soon after.

He yelled out her name in frustration. Once again, the ball suffered the wrath of its master. The diminishing sound of the dribbling ball soon overcame the incessant noise of pain. Yet, he couldn't deny that it was a sweet noise.

Beads of sweat gushed down his face, dampening his disheveled black hair. He hadn't bothered combing it when he rushed out of his house at five in the morning, unable to face the torturous sleep anymore. Dressed up in a grey sweatshirt and black knee-length shorts, he hurried towards the gym, opening the locked door with the key his coach had trusted him with.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed since then, but every second was torture. The torture of being away from her, the torture of knowing that he wasn't her choice, the torture of facing the demons that invaded him every day - every second of every day was torture.

_He smiled at her beautiful sleeping face, wanting to hold her in his embrace till eternity. That was what he promised her – always and forever. _

He ran around the court, effortlessly dunking the ball in swift motions.

His body protested. He paid no heed.

The pain seared through his body, ripping through his muscles inch by inch. He paid no heed.

Tears started to prickle in his eyes, taunting him. He paid no heed.

His vision became unfocused, the haze, distinctly clear. He paid no heed.

His breathing became erratic, forcing away the continuity he required. He paid no heed.

He felt his soul draining away. He paid no heed. The soul he once adored already flew away.

And then, he slumped on the wooden floor. The ball bounced for a while before stopping altogether. Rolling over, he rested on his back, allowing the condensation of his sweat provide a coolness to his body. He closed his eyes, and for the first time since the morning, a soothing understanding breezed over him.

She had left him. Not the other way round.

He wanted to stop pining over her; to stop regarding her existence altogether; to stop submitting to the pain. The only person who could help him was he himself.

Starting now. Starting _today._

He stood up with much difficulty. He hoped that he resembled a phoenix, while all the time knowing that that was untrue.

_He was Nathan Scott. _

"Hello? Anyone there?" A petite brunette walked through the doors of the basketball court, peeking around. Her movement halted abruptly when she saw a tall dark-haired man staring at her with narrowed eyes.

Nathan could sense the venom sprinting within him as he saw her astonished face. He didn't remove his impending glare away from her. The fury bubbled inside him as he clenched his fists tightly.

He was inclined to comment. But she beat him to it.

"Sorry, I…I thought I heard a ball…ball dribbling. It was quite e-early. I had no idea," the girl stuttered her words out of her mouth while fiddling with her fingers nervously.

"Last time I checked, this was a free country," Nathan snarled. A smirk appeared on his face, taunting her to refute. He stepped closer towards her, each step daunting the girl even more.

He stopped a few feet before her, not enough to invade into her personal space but enough to daunt her. His smirk never left the face as his eyes signaled towards the door behind her.

_And no one could deter him. _

She attempted to maintain a steady face, the sorrowful and watery eyes speaking otherwise. Muttering another soft apology, she rushed out of the court room, not glancing back even a single time.

Nathan ignored the pain of causing her grief. His indifference brushed away any sign of forgiveness and acceptance. All he felt was fury and betrayal. All he wanted to do was escape from the pain.

_She laughed while twirling around in the rain, ignoring his protests. She saw him jogging towards her as she held out her hand. He gladly took it, and in a matter of seconds, joined her in the dance. They both embraced in a passionate kiss – a kiss, a feeling that could never be deterred._

He jogged towards the ball, flinging it once again into the net. The swift sound soothed him, cleared his mind from the fog.

He was through with berating himself for _her_ decision. He was going to change. And no one could stop him.

_Not even Haley James. Especially not, Haley James. _

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**A/N : How was this? **


	2. Chapter Two

**~CHAPTER TWO~**

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"What's wrong with you?"

Nathan turned back to find his brother glaring at him with his arms crossed over in front of his chest.

"What do you mean?" Nathan asked back, leaning against his car. He placed his hands in his pockets.

Lucas scoffed in return. "You know very well what I mean. Haley, Nate. Haley."

Nathan knew that this lecture that was coming his way now was inevitable. Ever since the past week, ever since Haley returned back, he had been waiting for it. Waiting for Lucas to flare up, waiting for him to call Nathan an asshole, waiting for him to make Nathan feel guilty enough to accept her arrival with arms wide open.

He knew all these were coming. But he was well-prepared too.

He flashed his famous smirk, "What about her?"

Lucas stood there stunned and hurt. He removed his hands from their original position and rubbed one on his face. He couldn't believe this.

"So that's it? A small obstacle in your relationship and you back away like a coward?" Lucas shouted.

_Strike one. _

Nathan shrugged indifferently.

"Don't stand there and pretend like it doesn't bother you! That hurting her doesn't bother you. Since last week, you've been nothing but a jerk to her. Do you have any idea how it is for her, Nate? Any idea?"

"No. And I don't care, either," Nathan replied, coolly.

"Please tell me you're not changing into an asshole now." Luke spoke, the pain clear in his voice.

_Strike two._

"You're telling me you don't care about her? You actually believe that I am gonna stand here and take your crap?"

"Look, I don't need you to come here and lecture about how I treat some girl. That's my -"

The rest of the sentence was left unfinished as Nathan was cut short by a strong punch to his cheek. He closed his eyes to block out he pain.

"She is not _some girl_. You hear me? She is _not! _" Lucas yelled at his brother, stepping back a bit. "She is Haley James, my best friend and the love of your life. So, you better treat her with some respect."

_Strike three._

This struck a chord in Nathan's heart. And it didn't bring music to the situation.

"What did you say?" Nathan growled at his brother.

"You heard me right."

Nathan lunged forward at his brother, ignoring the pain in his cheek. How dare he comment on something that he had no clue of? The very 'love of his life' was the reason that he suffered tormenting dreams at night; the reason that he faced the worst three months of his life; the reason that today his heart was nothing but a rubble of shattered pieces.

Excuse him for not treating the 'love of his life' with any respect.

"I gave my heart to her, Luke," Nathan yelled back as he got up after tackling his brother on the ground. "I gave my fucking heart to her and look what she did in return. Just fucking look!"

He paused to allow Lucas to stand before continuing his rant.

"You think it was easy? Coming to terms with the fact that I had fallen in love with a person who didn't fit in my clique and yet not giving a shit about it? You think it was easy to love her with all I had? To put her on top of basketball and every fucking thing in my life? To respecting her wishes and forgetting about my own? To even fucking change my dreams after school just so that I could be with her? You think it was easy, huh!"

The river court boomed with his rant, and when it was over, an eerie silence took its place.

Nathan breathed heavily and mentally forced his tears to not surface in front of Lucas who stood there silently gazing at the ground below.

"I'm sorry, Nate. I'm sorry that you're hurtin -"

"Yeah, well, guess what? I'm sorry, too." He shouted, a stark contrast to the calm, sorrowful voice of his brother.

"I'm sorry that I was an asshole who was foolish enough to believe that giving my heart to someone was a good thing. When she chose some fucking jerk of a musician over me, she made it pretty clear that I had spent the past year on something utterly useless. So, yeah, I'm sorry that I wasted my time on getting hurt when i could have been out there focusing on my _dreams_."

"She was your dream, Nate," Lucas mentioned softly. He looked up to find Nathan shaking his head slowly. With a connection that could only be present between siblings, at that instant, Lucas could feel his younger brother's pain searing through his own body.

Nathan turned back and opened the door of his car. Before entering inside, he shifted slightly and muttered in a low voice. "I didn't deserve the pain, Luke."

Nathan didn't wait for any response and drove swiftly out of the area, failing to notice a particular brunette sobbing quietly in the passenger seat of Lucas's car.

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**A/N: Before anyone starts to lose their mind, let me just say how extremely sorry I am with the long wait for and the short length of this chapter.**

**I've been extremely busy, and to add to that, I'm not going to deny the fact that I am a huge procrastinator. **

**I really hope this chapter didn't disappoint anyone much. It was kind of a filler/insight into Nathan's pain. The next chapter would definitely bring some Naley conversation into the scene. **

**So, all I can say is that I hope you stay with me as I bring to you this story.**

**P.S : l . bergin94 **- Yes, the girl in the gym was indeed Haley. I'm glad that I haven't confused everyone. Thank you for the review. :)

**And lastly, thanks to all those who read and reviewed the previous chapter. Also, thank you for putting this story in your story alerts. It means a lot! :)**

**Sorry, again. **


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